Reuters Corrects: Fewer Than 400 Administrative Detainees, Not Over 5400

Following communication with CAMERA's Israel office, Reuters corrects an article which overstated the number of Palestinians held in administrative detention by more than a factor of 10. Yesterday's article about the Israeli decision to apply administrative detention to Jewish terror suspects erroneously stated: "According to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, 5,442 Palestinians were in detention without trial as of June."

In fact, according to the latest data on B'Tselem's Web site, the figure of 5,442 refers to the total number of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, the vast majority of whom have been tried. The number of Palestinians held without trial, according to B'Tselem, stood at 370 as of June 31, 2015 -- less than 10 percent of the figure that Reuters had cited. (See B'Tselem table below.)

Reuters today commendably corrects the story, republishing it on the wire with the following note prominently placed at the top of the story:

(In August 2 story, corrects number of Palestinians held in detention without trial in paragraph 10 to .. 391 as of May ..not.. 5,442 as of June)

Indeed, the corrected text now states: "According to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, 391 Palestinians were in detention without trial as of May." (Reuters relied on B'Tselem's page devoted to statistics on administrative detention, which is updated only through May. Elsewhere, B'Tselem's data indicates that figure dropped from 391 to 370 by the end of June.)

For additional Reuters corrections prompted by CAMERA, please see here.